Climate Climate & Energy
All Stories
-
Live at Coal River Mountain rally with Bob Kincaid
As Google Earth takes world leaders at the Copenhagen Climate Summit on a virtual flyover of Coal River Mountain today, besieged residents and citizens groups from Coal River Mountain and across West Virginia and the Appalachian coalfields, along with their national allies, will hold a 2 pm EST rally at the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection in Charleston, W.Va., calling for an immediate halt to the reckless mountaintop removal blasting on Coal River Mountain.
-
![]()
![]()
‘Fourteen days to seal history’s judgment on this generation’
Today 56 newspapers in 45 countries take the unprecedented step of speaking with one voice through a common editorial. We do so because humanity faces a profound emergency. Unless we combine to take decisive action, climate change will ravage our planet, and with it our prosperity and security. The dangers have been becoming apparent for […]
-
The world needs a dramatic climax in Copenhagen, not a lame dress rehearsal
“Calm before the storm” is how my colleague Jamie Henn described Copenhagen today. “‘Hopenhagen‘ advertising everywhere, people setting up a outdoor concert venue in downtown, a few anarchist posters wheat-pasted on signs, and I even saw a 350.dk license plate on a bicycle!” I’m still in the United States, but packing for the trip to […]
-
![]()
![]()
Will Copenhagen save the rainforests?
In the midst of decreasing expectations over a global climate deal, saving forests has been held out as the one thing that might be achieved over the next two weeks in Copenhagen. Says Newsweek: “One of the few tangible achievements expected from the climate talks in Copenhagen this month is agreement on a program called […]
-
Stemming global deforestation emissions: Copenhagen (part 4)
There was an extensive debate in the lead-in to the Kyoto Protocol (and after) about whether incentives for reducing deforestation would be recognized as a part of the agreement. For a number of reasons countries didn’t agree to include deforestation incentives, but did agree to allow increased forest cover to count. Unfortunately a lot of […]
-
![]()
![]()
From Bhopal to Copenhagen
I tried, unsuccessfully, to learn if anyone from Bhopal, India, would be speaking at the climate summit in Copenhagen. It seems unlikely, but the delegates gathering in Copenhagen need to hear what only someone from Bhopal can properly tell them. They need to know what it was like 25 years ago this week, when a […]
-
![]()
![]()
‘Climategate’ is a diversion
Magicians divert us with wands and puffs of smoke. Bullfighters fool steers with flashes of cape at just the right moment. Even Shakespeare understood: Things in motion sooner catch the eye than what not stirs. The human brain likes movement, and that makes it poorly equipped to think about climate change. Scientists warn that, on […]
-
![]()
![]()
Hamlet’s lessons for climate negotiators
I’ve been threatening my editors with a post on what Shakespeare’s Hamlet can teach the diplomats gathering next week to draft a new international climate treaty. Hamlet being a fictional Danish prince, and Copenhagen being in Denmark and … OK, it’s a flimsy hook. Don’t care. As I write this, I’ve got 12 hours of […]
-
![]()
![]()
How to explain Copenhagen to a comedian
Photo illustration / iStock images Comedian Eugene Mirman is going to Copenhagen for Grist to cover the international climate talks. Eugene is a fairly well-informed guy (he at least scans Google News looking for reviews of his latest album), but he’s the first to admit that he doesn’t live, eat, and smoke climate policy. At […]
-
Developing country action to reduce global warming pollution: Copenhagen (part 3)
“If only developing countries would take action to reduce their global warming pollution.” That is the refrain that was heard in capitals around the world for years. This was driven partly by a concern over competitiveness in some places (e.g., the U.S. and E.U.). And it was also driven by the reality that global emissions […]
